Some may call me pessimistic, but I feel we are currently living in a world that is a “pastiche eclipse parody”. As capitalism and power keeps running our daily lives, we end up having a lost of a referent, which ends in a cyclical collapse. Maybe I am thinking too much as Lyotard, but I feel society, or lets say some subcultures, are falling more into what society expects from them, and some end up losing their individuality. I remember when I used to be part of a sorority, I was trying from the beginning to be accepted by them, and therefore, I hope to be looked and ‘admired’ as one of them. As time when on, I felt that I was becoming frozen. I felt that since the beginning, even though I was given the ‘privilege’ to be part of their subculture, my ideology never really aligned with theirs. It funny, or maybe sad, because I can tell how some first-years won't and would never understand me because they might idealized this specific group of girls.
For the quote, “The underside of culture is blood, torture, death and horror”, it reminds me of certain type of films today. I wish I was alive during the Film Noir era, because at that time, all the aspects of mise-en-scène had motives and less about the box office revenues and profits. Unfortunately, I feel that now a days, some movies just baise their direction and production to what will be more profitable and consumed; instead of creating a film for a sense of art and meaning. As an example, years back, film musicals used to be AMAZING, take under consideration Singin’ in the rain, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, and compare them to now a day musicals such as Hairspray (2007), Mamma Mia 2, and Live those live musicals shows such as Grease and Hairspray.
I really like your connection to the reading with the idea of being part of a sorority. I am still a member of my own sorority, and I often make myself stop and take a look around. Each organization does have its own subculture, but the overarching subculture of Panhellenic or FSL is something of note as well. My organization is focusing on rebranding its image in the eyes of the community, and I realize that this rebranding steers us towards assimilation with the other organizations on campus. We aim to join the elite by mimicking them: the "pastiche eclipse parody."
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ReplyDeleteThis was actually a reading that I did not understand completely when reading it. After hours of studying and reading over the material again, I have a little better of an understanding of the main ideas and concepts. I think it's interesting how you compared this reading to sorority life, it also made it easier to understand some of Jameson's main ideas.
Overall, Jameson speaks about how the postmodern is missing depth and originality. He often connects this to the art industry and how we are in the pastiche. Pastiche refers to taking ideas from the past. He connects this into the postmodern and how we are "frozen." We are at a point where we are taking ideas from the past and adding new elements to it but it is not original. I often connect this to the music industry and how I feel that we are frozen in originality. I feel like the new music releases all have a common sound, topic, and so on. I think as a society we are searching for a new break in the norm.